Vivid pictures and 'a rattling good story'

“It rattles along at an eye-popping pace”, one reader comments on Amazon. Says another: “It should be on the reading list of every media studies course”.

From Eastbourne, a reader reports: “Chadwick paints vivid pictures of the semi-farcical Cod War, the India-Pakistan and Israeli-Arab conflicts and the terrorist outrage at the Munich Olympics.”

From San Jose, California, a reader says: “To me, the period covered in this book was a Golden Age of journalism”.

From the Cotswolds, a computer wizard tells Amazon in a five-star review how he devoured the book over two long train journeys. 

Jazz Journal editor Mark Gilbert told Amazon: “John describes in an engaging and easily digested way how a wartime northern childhood flowered into globetrotting adventure.”

From Spain, former Daily Express editor Brian Hitchen said: “A wonderful avalanche of experiences, a terrific read”.

Ex-Reuters men have been impressed, too. “A rattling good story”, says Nick Carter. “I’m lost in admiration”, says ex-Bonn staffer George Vine. From Glasgow, Scott Thornton calls the chapters on Lancashire, Ireland and Cyprus “magnificent evocative pieces of writing”. Norway's veteran journalist Henry Henriksen calls the book “amazing, comprehensive, absorbing”, and Canada’s Cy Fox says: “This is the real story, straight from the coalface. ... an essential source for anyone starting to chronicle the history of Reuters in the 20th Century”. ■